Caracas

Caracas, capital and chief city of Venezuela, northern Venezuela, capital of the Capital District, in the fertile Caracas Valley, near the Caribbean port of La Guaira. Caracas is the commercial and industrial center of Venezuela. Among the city's many industries are auto assembly, sugar refining, meat packing, brewing, leather tanning, oil refining, and the manufacture of paper, tobacco products, glassware, textiles, rubber goods, and pharmaceuticals. Caracas is linked by air routes, by railroads, and by highways with La Guaira, with western Venezuela, and with Ciudad Bolívar.

The Plaza Bolívar, one of many squares and public gardens in Caracas, contains a bronze equestrian statue of Simón Bolívar, South American statesman and revolutionary, who was born in Caracas. The gilt-domed capitol building, the Central University of Venezuela (1721), and the National Pantheon, where Bolívar is buried, are nearby. Another notable building is the Roman Catholic cathedral built in 1636; Caracas is the seat of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Venezuela.

The city was founded in 1567 as Santiago de León de Caracas and became one of the most prosperous Spanish colonial communities in South America. It was sacked by English buccaneers under the English navigator Sir Francis Drake in 1595. In 1810, under the leadership of Bolívar, it became the center of the first revolt in the war for independence from Spain (1810-21). Caracas became the capital of the Venezuelan Republic in 1829. During its history the city has suffered several earthquakes: 12,000 people were killed and most of the city was destroyed in 1812, and 277 people were killed and many buildings collapsed or were damaged in 1967. Population (2001) 1,836,000.